Sep – Oct 2018 Washington Vignettes

For their surprisingly diverse exhibition of First Nations and Native American contem-porary artists, curator Chloe Dye Sherpe and guest artist RYAN! Feddersen spent three years assembling a mix of practicing multi-media artists who display a limit-busting range of approaches, from fractured photo-imagery to a wall of all-glass petroglyphs. Highly polemic, bracing and thoughtful, this show mixes propaganda and pop culture with a vengeful sense of art history.

JULI ADAMS, I SAW THE FACE OF HECATE, 2018.

JULI ADAMS: I SAW THE FACE OF HECATEBONFIRE Gallery, Seattle, To Sep 28

For her Seattle gallery debut, Pop Surrealist Juli Adams delves into ancient Greek mythology, specifi cally the myth of Hecate, purported deity of household prosperity, magic and witchcraft, among other things. Imagining a trip to the underworld, pre-senting a female fi gure as Hecate, Adams creates creepy images of skeletons, skulls and the darker aspects of femininity. A BFA graduate of Evergreen State College, Adams has also exhibited in Oregon, New Mexico and California.

In a follow-up to her extraordinary appearance in Seattle Art Museum’s recent show Figuring History, leading younger African American painter Mickalene Thomas dis-plays photo setups, installations, photographs, prints, collages and videos, all related to her large-scale paintings. Toying with art history, as in the reclining nudes of Ingres and Manet, Thomas honors the models as inspirations and as members of her inti-mate community. Related photos by 15 other artists are included by Thomas.

A Catholic nun who was infl uenced by and then extended the visual ideas of Andy Warhol – bright color, mass production, everyday subject matter, embrace of adver-tising’s appearance – Sister Corita (1918-1986) has a stature that has steadily grown since her death at age 68. Davidson Galleries selectively highlights her art in a small but intense survey. By the end of the 1960s, she had left the convent at the height of her fame yet continued to revolutionize graphic design and protest art.

HAEIN KANG, ILLUSION:
YOU CAN HEAR BUT YOU CAN’T SEE, 2017.

HAIEN KANG: ILLUSION4Culture, Seattle, Oct 4 – 25

A Korean-born doctoral candidate in digital arts at the University of Washington, Haien Kang constructs a sculptural-technological installation at the King County arts com-mission space for her Seattle debut. Illusion involves eight percussion instruments that are activated by a performer in the room hooked up to an EEG monitor. She believes the listener will visualize “raindrops falling on the roof in the dead of winter.” Kang’s 1996 debut was at Flying Piggy Gallery in Seoul. She has also exhibited in California and New Mexico.